Nov. 12, 2021

President Muhammadu Buhari has described Nigerians as “competitive both at home and abroad,” and urged them to always abide by the rules of their host countries.

The President in a meeting with Minister of State Foreign Affairs of United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Excellency Shaikh Shakboot Alnahyan, Friday at the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum, said “Nigerians are all over the place, very competitive. And the competitiveness starts from home, where they have acquired good education, gone into businesses, and then take all that abroad.”

President Buhari encouraged Nigerians in Diaspora to “subject themselves to the rules and standards of the country in which they live either as working class, or doing businesses.”

He welcomed the offer by UAE to partner with Nigeria in the areas of renewable energy, agriculture, infrastructure logistics, and provision of vaccines to further control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister Shakboot Alnahyan said his country “thinks very highly “of President Buhari’s leadership, noting that he was striving to “build a better future for generations to come.”

He said there were lots of Nigerians in his country, “who add much value,” assuring that the headwinds of the recent past in the relationship “are now behind us. We want to secure, deepen and strengthen the association for the future. We have a lot in common. We may be taking small steps, but they are leading somewhere.”

On proposed investments in Nigeria, Alnahyan said it would be a win-win situation, “which would bring hope and opportunities for people in both countries. We want to come and add quality and value.”

He equally commended the Nigerian government for its robust tackling of violent extremism.